Pixar’s Lightyear took the audience back to the universe of Toy Story in a unique way that didn’t include the toys viewers have known all these years, but it successfully delivered Toy Story 3’s failed ending message. Pixar continues to be a powerhouse in the world of animation and keeps releasing at least one movie per year. 2022 saw two stories from Pixar, the first one (Turning Red) released on Disney+, and the second one, Lightyear, released in theaters, the first Pixar movie to get a theatrical release since Onward, in 2020.
After a lot of confusion and speculation over what the connection between Toy Story and Lightyear is and how the latter fits into the timeline of the Toy Story saga, Lightyear cleared all this with an opening card that explained the movie is the same that a young Andy watched back in 1995 that made him a big fan of Buzz Lightyear. Lightyear, then, tells the story of young Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans), who after being marooned on a hostile planet with his commander and crew, tries to find a way back home. However, his attempts to return home lead him to jump many years into the future, where he comes across an even bigger problem when he meets Emperor Zurg (James Brolin).
Although Lightyear has gotten mostly positive reviews, it has the lowest score in the Toy Story saga, and among its weaknesses are its story and the references to the Toy Story saga that, in most cases, felt quite forced. Still, Lightyear has its strengths, such as the animation and the characters themselves, but it also has one that connects directly to Toy Story, as it delivered the failed ending message of Toy Story 3.
Toy Story 3 Set Up A Perfect Ending For The Toys
Eleven years after the release of Toy Story 2, Pixar brought a sequel, simply titled Toy Story 3. In it, Andy, now 17, is preparing to leave for college, and so he’s separating his belongings to see which ones he will take with him, which ones will be donated, which will be thrown away, and which ones will be stored in the attic. Andy decides that he will take Woody with him and the rest – Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Slinky, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and the aliens – will be placed in the attic, but his mom mistakenly puts the bag with the garbage. The group escapes and sneaks into the donation box and is followed by Woody, and they all end up at Sunnyside. Once there, they are tricked by the toys’ leader, Lotso, and placed in a room with children who are very rough and mean with the toys. After many obstacles and enemies at Sunnyside, the toys escape but so does Lotso, and they end up in a garbage truck that takes them to a landfill, where they are swept onto a conveyor belt leading to an incinerator (except for Lotso). Andy’s toys accept their fate and hold hands as they get closer and closer to the fire, and while this would have been a dark and heartbreaking ending to the Toy Story series, it was a perfect and beautiful ending.
Toy Story 3 was on its way to ending with the message of no matter what hardship or change has to be endured (even if that’s death in an incinerator), as long as Woody, Buzz, and company remained together, they would be fine, as at the end of the day, they were family. The toys chose to die together, which would have been a beautiful ending for the Toy Story saga as after all they had gone through, they didn’t aband each other – however, they were rescued at the last minute by the Aliens, who found the industrial claw and pulled them out of the incinerator. The toys found a new home with Bonnie, including Woody, so they remained together, but Toy Story 4 split them up again, with Woody being rejected by Bonnie, leading him to decide to start a new life with Bo Peep as a “lost toy” while the rest stayed with Bonnie.
How Lightyear Successfully Delivered Toy Story 3’s Ending Message
Lightyear saw Buzz and his commanding officer and best friend, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), stranded on a habitable planet where they work hard to find repair their vessel and return home, with Buzz volunteering to test hyperspace fuel. However, each trip, which to him lasts four minutes, is actually four years long, and he ends up over 80 years into the future after many test flights. At the end of Lightyear, Buzz no longer looks to find a way home as he realizes that he has already found a new home on this “new” planet with his new friends and colleagues, and instead he revives the Space Ranger Corps with his new crew. Buzz chose to stay “lost” and build their own, new world, and he also realized that their happiness is together, not searching for a way home and losing more years in the process.
Through this, Lightyear delivered on the failed ending message of Toy Story 3 in its own way, as Buzz could have been given the key to return home at the end, just like the Aliens appeared to rescue the toys, but instead, Lightyear remained loyal to the message of staying together and accepting a new (and perhaps unexpected) happiness. Lightyear isn’t a Toy Story movie, but it picked up what could have been a better ending for the Toy Story saga than the one it was ultimately given.